Tag Archives: toto

Songwriter Hall of Famer John Bettis has watched his songs climb the country, pop, R&B and adult contemporary radio airplay charts over his decades as a lyricist in the music business. His pen is behind hits including George Strait’s “Heartland,” Barbara Mandrell’s “One of a Kind Pair of Fools,” Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” and Madonna’s “Crazy for You.”

But it was his unexpected collaboration with members of a different chart-topping rock band that led to a song recorded by the King of Pop. Bettis sat down with Nashville Songwriter Association International’s (NSAI) Executive Director Bart Herbison to talk about writing “Human Nature” for Michael Jackson, with a little help from Toto.

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, each week we will release a new video featuring NSAI executive director Bart Herbison interviewing a Nashville songwriter about his or her work.

"You know, it's hard for me to believe - Ringo at the Ryman!" he exclaimed after opening the show with "Matchbox," a song he sang in the Fab Four's earliest days. "Far out. A man could only dream."

Actually, Starr's fans seemed much more in awe of the situation. On Saturday, he may have been more up close and personal with Music City than ever before: greeting the public at a brief birthday celebration at the Hard Rock Cafe earlier in the day, and with the Ryman, playing a more intimate venue than the sites of previous Nashville gigs (Bridgestone Arena, Wildhorse Saloon).

On the most momentous day of Nashville attorney Richard Busch’s professional career, his teenage son wondered if Dad had actually lost his mind.

Busch had glanced at his iPhone, then immediately jumped up and down before he bounded over to grab his son, Ryan, by the shoulders and shake the bewildered boy, yelling, “We won, we won, we won, we won, we won.”

The case Busch had just won wasn’t an ordinary victory for the 47-year-old music business attorney. After a years-long battle against Universal Music Group, an appeals court had just ruled in favor of his clients, F.B.T. Productions, the Detroit hip-hop producers behind rap artist Eminem’s musical success. The upshot was that Eminem (and F.B.T.) were entitled to an equal split of profits with their record company for downloads of Eminem’s music, instead of the fraction they’d been getting all along.

It wasn’t just that the victory would force the biggest of the world’s four major record companies to pay out potentially tens of millions of dollars in past and future royalties to F.B.T. and to Eminem. And it wasn’t just a personal vindication for Busch after a lengthy lawsuit against a company whose legal team had dwarfed his.

CLICK THIS IMAGE for more photos, and scroll to the end of the story for video. Here, front row: Fred Foster, Dick Dale, Billy Cox and Charlie Daniels; back row: Merle Atkins (representing her father, Chet Atkins) along with members from the band TOTO (photo: Larry McCormack/The Tennessean).

Music stars and behind-the-scenes legends alike joined to be honored Monday night, October 12, at the 2009 Musicians Hall of Fame induction ceremony and concert.

The event is open to the public, so you too can make an appearance -- and until 5 p.m. today (Thursday), we're offering a chance to do so for free. Click here to enter to win a pair of tickets.

You can still purchase tickets via NashvilleSymphony.org, too, and those run $30, $50, $75, $100 and $200. The event is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m., and the Schermerhorn is located at 1 Symphony Place.